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Berlin, Germany
October 16, 1939
Dear Folks:
Biggest news since I wrote you a week ago is that I received another salary raise. This time it amounts to $50 - from $275 a month to $325. With that as an
incentive I will be able to stand it here for a while again. I also have been visiting a dentist here. One of my old fillings fell out and after fixing that he found three more
cavities which he immediately took care of. I finished today and the work wasn't any too cheap. Forty-four marks for the lot. But he is an excellent dentist - one who received his training in America.
Another week has flown by and still no word from home nor any news about the $400 I wanted transferred here. I sent another cable, as you know, hoping to find out whether the money ever was sent from New York. By the time you receive this letter I hope the money will have arrived, because I am pretty low in funds.
Political maneuvering and speeches held the limelight here this last week over war news. Now that it seems the war definitely is on unless some last minute
miracle changes the situation again everyone is girding for a long war. The Chamberlain speech was a big disappointment to the German people who had been led to believe that after the swift defeat of the Poles, the English and French would call everything off. We
had something like a false armistice here one day, and the people in my building were hugging one another and crying for joy until they were put straight. Their faces
figuratively speaking fell to the floor.
It was such a beautiful fall day today that I walked to the dentist's office. Enroute I passed any number of meat markets and fish stores and before each one long lines of women had formed waiting to buy. An attendant stands at the door and lets them in one at a time. I have to carry my rationing cards with me now or go hungry. All restaurants now serve their food against coupons. In brackets behind the dishes on the menues - which are very slim - appears a notation now designating how much of your rationing card will be clipped before they can serve you. It certainly is a nuisance and
sometimes it is pretty tough getting anything decent to eat. Foreign correspondents now are going to get "reisekarten" in addition to our regular rationing cards which will permit us more food, and will be very handy in the restaurants.
My name was spread all over the German press last Thursday. They quoted from my dispatch out of Jaslo, Poland, regarding the poison gas victims. Two
other correspondents who also were on the trip received the same treatment. Quotations were taken from our stories in an effort to make propaganda against
England. I don't know whether I already told you that on returning from Jaslo I flew from Breslau to Berlin in a huge military airplane. During the flight we each took a turn sitting in the open cockpit near the tail of the plane where the machine gunner sits to fight attackers. It was quite a thrill and perfectly safe. Flying In a military plane is a little different than in one of the luxurious planes of a passenger line. There are no comfortable seats. Just a hard bench without a back. The interior is in the raw. When we arrived over Berlin a pea-soup fog had set in and for an hour or more we just circled over the city before finally making a blind landing. It was quite a thrill, but a dangerous one. When we broke through the fog we were about fifty feet above the ground. The army
aviators certainly are excellent pilots.

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This image is issued by Marquette University. Use of the image requires written permission from the staff of the Department of Special Collections and University Archives. It may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file, or any other media. The image should not be significantly altered through conventional or electronic means. Images altered beyond standard cropping and resizing require further negotiation with a staff member. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. Please credit: Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University Libraries.

Transcript

Berlin, Germany
October 16, 1939
Dear Folks:
Biggest news since I wrote you a week ago is that I received another salary raise. This time it amounts to $50 - from $275 a month to $325. With that as an
incentive I will be able to stand it here for a while again. I also have been visiting a dentist here. One of my old fillings fell out and after fixing that he found three more
cavities which he immediately took care of. I finished today and the work wasn't any too cheap. Forty-four marks for the lot. But he is an excellent dentist - one who received his training in America.
Another week has flown by and still no word from home nor any news about the $400 I wanted transferred here. I sent another cable, as you know, hoping to find out whether the money ever was sent from New York. By the time you receive this letter I hope the money will have arrived, because I am pretty low in funds.
Political maneuvering and speeches held the limelight here this last week over war news. Now that it seems the war definitely is on unless some last minute
miracle changes the situation again everyone is girding for a long war. The Chamberlain speech was a big disappointment to the German people who had been led to believe that after the swift defeat of the Poles, the English and French would call everything off. We
had something like a false armistice here one day, and the people in my building were hugging one another and crying for joy until they were put straight. Their faces
figuratively speaking fell to the floor.
It was such a beautiful fall day today that I walked to the dentist's office. Enroute I passed any number of meat markets and fish stores and before each one long lines of women had formed waiting to buy. An attendant stands at the door and lets them in one at a time. I have to carry my rationing cards with me now or go hungry. All restaurants now serve their food against coupons. In brackets behind the dishes on the menues - which are very slim - appears a notation now designating how much of your rationing card will be clipped before they can serve you. It certainly is a nuisance and
sometimes it is pretty tough getting anything decent to eat. Foreign correspondents now are going to get "reisekarten" in addition to our regular rationing cards which will permit us more food, and will be very handy in the restaurants.
My name was spread all over the German press last Thursday. They quoted from my dispatch out of Jaslo, Poland, regarding the poison gas victims. Two
other correspondents who also were on the trip received the same treatment. Quotations were taken from our stories in an effort to make propaganda against
England. I don't know whether I already told you that on returning from Jaslo I flew from Breslau to Berlin in a huge military airplane. During the flight we each took a turn sitting in the open cockpit near the tail of the plane where the machine gunner sits to fight attackers. It was quite a thrill and perfectly safe. Flying In a military plane is a little different than in one of the luxurious planes of a passenger line. There are no comfortable seats. Just a hard bench without a back. The interior is in the raw. When we arrived over Berlin a pea-soup fog had set in and for an hour or more we just circled over the city before finally making a blind landing. It was quite a thrill, but a dangerous one. When we broke through the fog we were about fifty feet above the ground. The army
aviators certainly are excellent pilots.